Welcome to Meier Law Firm. Just by the fact that you are here, we know you are taking a huge step toward protecting your loved ones, preserving your assets, and securing a great future.

As attorneys and as parents, we know that life events happen. How we prepare for or respond to these life events makes all the difference.

No one should feel helpless or alone when considering what could happen to their family or financial security if they become seriously ill or pass away. Preparing for this scenario now is entirely within our control.

You should not feel helpless or alone either if a crisis has already hit. With the right support and guidance, options are always available.

And that’s where we come in.

How We Can Help

Our responsibility as your trusted family attorney is to make sure your family is completely taken care of at every stage of life—the good times, and the difficult times. Many families turn to us at the beginning of exciting life changes, such as starting a family, buying a home, or starting a business. They also count on us during the tough times, such as when facing a long-term health care diagnosis, feeling concern about outliving a child with special needs, having a loved one become incapacitated, or when a loved one passes away.

We understand it’s difficult to even imagine or confront these scenarios, but unfortunately, it can be devastating to our families if we do not. Temporary foster care, courtrooms, loss of inheritance, and turmoil naturally occur when families are unprepared or lack the right guidance during a crisis. No one wants that for their family.

With our help, you never have to worry about facing life events alone, or being unprepared. We are here to assist you and protect you each step of the way. By preparing for life events now, you can ensure:

Your kids would never be placed in the care of strangers during an emergency, and would be raised by who you want;

Your family would avoid a long and expensive court process known as probate;

Someone you trust and have chosen can manage your finances during an incapacity;

Your aging spouse or parent can receive Medi-Cal or VA benefits, so they don’t go broke paying for long term care;

Your child with special needs will have the resources, care, and quality of life they need when you are no longer here;

Your medical decisions can be made according to your wishes, and by someone you trust;

The money you leave behind can be safeguarded from creditors, predators, divorce, and lawsuits;

You can leave behind far more than just money.

Getting Started

Most of us to protect our families and assets, but for whatever reason, we stop short of setting up a will or trust, or revisiting the one we already have.

We want to encourage you to not put off this important task even one more day. The most difficult calls we receive are from those turning to us for help after a crisis has hit. While there are still options available for them, the lack of preparation causes these families unnecessary stress and agony that could have been mitigated had they prepared.

We want your family to be the success story—the family that enjoys all of life’s wonderful moments, while fully prepared for any difficult times. And we want you to choose the right people to help you prepare for and navigate these life moments. It will make all the difference. We want your family to count on us.

Our Estate Plans and Lifetime Service

Our comprehensive family estate plans provide your family the complete protections you need. We listen to your goals and concerns, and show you your options so you can make the best decisions for your family. Just like no family is the same, no estate plan should be the same. Your plan is customized just for you based on your family’s unique needs.

We also offer you a lifetime relationship with us, so you can conveniently keep your plan up to date, and rely on us in your time of need. Far too often, families turn to a service or lawyer who simply hands them inadequate estate planning documents and then sends them on their way. They soon become frustrated once questions arise or when they need to make updates, because of the lack of an ongoing relationship. Worst of all, many of these families see their plan fail.

How We are Different

Our Firm is different than traditional firms. We are your lawyers for life. We provide families a welcomed alternative to the traditional lawyer experience, and provide them the ongoing relationship and guidance they need so they can be confident their plan will work exactly as needed when life events happen. We want you to have the same five-star experience our clients enjoy, and the confidence and peace of mind knowing that you are in the very best of hands.

Your Next Best Step

For those who are already facing a crisis and in need of a compassionate family trust attorney to assist you, we extend to you our warmest welcome and assurance that we will do everything possible to resolve your situation, and ensure your protection and care.

No matter what situation you are facing today, we invite you to call our warm and welcoming Client Services Director, Bonnie Johnson, at (949) 718-0420 to set up a time to meet us for assistance. We can talk together at our beautiful offices at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, or talk through Facetime or Skype if that works better for you. In some cases, we can even send a team member directly to your home or care facility.

Thank you for visiting our site! Because today is always the best day to take care of the people you love, we encourage you to give us a call, and we would be honored to help make sure your family is taken care of.

Estate Planning Process

Our estate planning process provides you with a comprehensive family estate plan in just six weeks. It is designed to ensure your family and assets are completely protected, you feel confident about your choices, and you have us as a trusted family attorney going forward. We handle everything for you so that you can focus on other important matters.

Our Easy Four Step Process:

Protects your assets and loved ones;

Provides you with a trusted team of advisors who will be there for your family;

Ensures a customized estate plan that can keep up with life’s changes;

How to Get Started

Hopefully you see that Meier Law Firm is something special. Because you love your family, you know they deserve the kind of protection, guidance and comfort we can provide for a lifetime. It’s important that you know how we work because we do things a bit differently here at Meier Law Firm than at other law firms. That’s why our clients love us so much, and they have graciously rated us #1 on Yelp in our community.

Schedule a Planning Session

The first step for getting started is to schedule a Planning Session. We warmly invite you to schedule by calling our friendly Client Services Director, Bonnie Johnson at 949.718.0420, or by emailing us at [email protected]

We typically can meet with you Monday through Friday between 9am and 5pm at our beautiful offices in Newport Beach, or through Facetime or Skype if that is more convenient. If you need other meeting availability, or need a member of our team to come your way, please check with Bonnie to see if this is possible.

When you schedule your Planning Session, we reserve 90 minutes on our calendar, so we can focus entirely on you and your family during this time. During our time together, we will gently discuss what would happen to your loved ones and assets if something were to happen to you. And then, we will look at what you wish to happen instead, and help you create a personalized design to get your plan in place. Clients routinely say “wow, if we had known how easy this would be, we would have done this years ago.”

Our Planning Session is normally $750 and if we create a comprehensive plan for you, that planning fee gets applied toward the fee for your lifetime estate plan. In some circumstances, we will waive the planning session fee and instead you can secure your planning session with a credit card number. If you keep your appointment, nothing will be charged on your card. If you need cancel or reschedule your session, there will be no charge to your card if you cancel at least 3 days in advance of your session or if you reschedule a new session that is within 30 days from your original session. If you cannot keep your appointment and you choose not to reschedule, your credit card will be charged $250 as a cancellation fee. This amount may be credited toward any future planning with us.

We understand that this policy of securing your appointment with a credit card may seem unique. So is our law firm. We provide our very best service to those families who are looking for a long-term relationship with their trusted advisor. We expend most of our energy providing an exceedingly high degree of service to our existing clients and limit the number of new clients we see each week. We only take referrals from trusted colleagues and clients. As a result, we must secure your appointment time so that if something comes up and you can’t attend your planning session, we will have enough advance notice to open the slot to a waiting family.

We know our Planning Session is a tremendous value to the families we serve and our clients agree!

“The Planning Session with Meier Law Firm was the best hour we spent on determining what type of estate planning our family needed.”—Dr. S. Strom, Irvine CA

What To Do Prior To Your Planning Session

Upon scheduling your Planning Session, our friendly Client Serviced Director will send you our Client Questionnaire and other important information that you will want to review prior to attending your session. We must receive your Client Questionnaire back at least 3 days before your Session or we may need to reschedule your Planning Session. Because our Planning Session is completely customized to you, we need this important information to make our time together valuable. Feel free to call the office at any time if you need assistance completing your questionnaire or have any questions at all.

If you have existing estate planning documents, please make sure that you provide us your existing documents at least 3 days in advance to the Planning Session so we can evaluate them prior to meeting with you.

What You Can Expect During Your Planning Session

On the day of your Planning Session, please expect to spend up to 90 minutes with a member of our team. The initial meeting with us has two purposes:

To identify whether there is a good fit between you and our Firm; and

To educate you about the law and what would happen if you died with your current (or no) plan in place.

By looking at what would happen under your current plan, you can identify what you would want to happen differently and then together with your Family Trust Attorney’s guidance make the decisions that are necessary to give you the peace of mind of knowing your family would be taken care of in the way you want if something happened to you.

Assuming that you and our team determine that there is a good fit between us AND that you identify specific ways you would want things to happen that are different than what would happen if something happened to you, we can design a plan for your family at the Planning Session.

Creating Your Plan

Our Firm has an easy four step process for helping you get your planning in place. Once your estate plan design is completed, we will schedule a signing meeting approximately 3 weeks from the date you design. In the interim, we will send you a Family Wealth Inventory Spreadsheet, so you can begin listing your assets. This helps us understand what assets exist, so we can determine how they need to be connected to your plan. We will also email you a confirmation of names and roles, and ask you to confirm spelling and provide full contact information for each key person in your plan.

We have a process of reviewing your documents with you that makes your plan so easy to understand that you will know for certain that we understood exactly the way you want things to happen when something happens to you and that your loved ones will be in excellent hands with our firm. Once you sign your planning documents, your assets and your family are protected as discussed during your design meeting.

We see the planning phase as only the beginning of our relationship. You may make changes to your planning documents at no charge for up to 90 days after you sign your documents. We have an outstanding process in place that allows you to make future changes to your plan for a nominal fee.

At our final meeting during the planning stage of our relationship, we verify that all your asset transfers are moving forward on track whether we are taking the lead, or you are taking the lead with our guidance. We review your asset spreadsheet with you and ensure your questions are answered. Of course, if they aren’t or they become cloudy later, we are always available to answer your questions at any time in the future. And, there’s no charge for that.

What Happens After You Sign Your Estate Planning Documents and Take Them Home

After the planning phase is complete, the maintenance phase of your plan will begin. At no additional charge, we review your plan at least every three years and keep you informed about changes in the law and about other issues that affect your family and your wealth. We are always here for you and we don’t charge you for phone calls, meetings, or emails. We welcome your communications!

You’ll be amazed at how easy and painless the entire planning process will be for your family. We warmly invite you to call our friendly Client Services Director, Bonnie Johnson at (949) 718-0420 to schedule a session, or discuss any questions you may have about our process.

The Guide to Protecting Your Child with a Will and Trust

In Good Parents Worry, Great Parents Plan, top family trust attorney and mother of four young children, Laura K. Meier, shows you the legal and practical steps you must take to protect your children from temporary foster care, courtrooms, loss of inheritance, and other turmoil most kids experience when their parents pass away.